Sorry about last week. Believe it or not, last Thursday I actually thought it was still Wednesday. Ever completely lose a day in a week? Seriously, I was really thrown off. Kinda scary.

So today I’ve got a little something extra for you.

Additions & Promotions!

But first, it’s time to unveil the newest member of the Manehattan Project!

BlurredTheLines – Quality Assurance Technician

Hey there, I’m BlurredTheLines, I’ve been on this ride since October 2012. When I first joined this fandom, I was so in awe of all this fan-created content that I wanted to give something back. I threw myself into a number of pursuits, determined to find something I was good at. You name it, I tried it; drawing, writing, voice acting, vector art, animation, and so on. Though I didn’t really find anything I was good at until I tried vector art, but I did acquire some skills in the process. Since then, I’m always looking for ways I can contribute to the fandom.

But wait, there’s more! We’ve also got a consultant who’s joined the team in full! None other than the one behind the original remaster of the Fallout: Equestria audiobook by Crazed Rambling!

Sonic Radboom – Audio Post-Production Engineer

I started watching MLP: FIM during S1 hiatus but at the time was simply a fan of the show. I was, at the time, still working on releasing anime for people to download and watch. it wasn’t until S2 started and I found EQD and all the amazing things the brony fandom was creating that I would finally consider myself a brony. With my newfound passion, I couldn’t just sit back and take in the epic content being generated, I needed to give something back!

I started by tweaking and adjusting my own personal collection of MLP Audiobooks, but then I started the original remaster of Fallout: Equestria by Crazed Rambling. Eventually, this was picked up by the Manehattan Project as a base for their “Manehattan Edition” of the audiobook. This led to me joining Manehattan, first as a consultant and now on staff in charge of audio post-production.

And finally, I am happy to announce a promotion on the team!

Ebon Quill – Quest Designer & Worldbuilding Writer

Ebon’s been hard at work going through the entire script of “This Coming Storm,” including every line of the 80,000 words of dialogue I wrote. With a long background of D&D Game Master experience and his own formidable writing chops, he’s offered to lend his considerable talents to making “This Coming Storm” the story-driven experience you deserve. The best part about Ebon is that his writing style is radically different from mine, so he’ll be able to see things I would have totally missed. In fact, I’ve already spoken to him about helping me to write the story for GoE 2!

Change in Blogging Frequency

A bit of housekeeping. Originally, I had intended to make this a weekly update and that’s slowly drifted to a bi-weekly update. However, since we’re at the point where we don’t have a great deal to show you that’s new, we’re going to be shifting to a monthly update. Less frequency, but hopefully with more content! However, I reserve the right to throw out special posts, so keep a weather eye out.

There you’ll find all manner of things, including my own latest short stories and my upcoming MLP novel, as well as my various rambling follow-ups on some of the best of FiMFiction in the world, stuff that any fan of MLP should enjoy.

Anyone who’s read Fallout: Equestria should love the Hard Reset trilogy. You’ll find my follow-up on the Nook, as well as my massive gallery of cover designs (24 authors are now using them!) and a few more random things.

I also have a new short story coming out soon as well. Don’t worry, I’m still working plenty on GoE (my refinements to Appleloosa Valley are simply massive. I’m literally created entire new mountain ranges and redone entire zones.) but writing will always remain my greatest passion.

Now technically, I have some new art I could show you. But instead, I want to keep that under our hats a bit longer. Don’t worry, there’s a very good reason for it. And I promise you’ll like it. A lot.

But now, we’ve got a member who just joined this morning. Actually, he accepted the position while I was writing this post! Serendipity, anyone? I’m happy to introduce Ebon Quill, who will be joining The Manehattan Project as a Worldbuilding Writer!

Worldbuilding Writers are a critical part of our storytelling team. While I may have written all the story script and dialogue, I simply can’t write everything. These brave souls fill that enormous gap. They will be writing the terminal entries, notes and scraps that breathe life into the backstory and world of Gardens of Equestria.

Ebon Quill: A humble luminist who has stumbled into working on a project that blends two of his favorite things. He is working on terminal entries, and will provide nothing less than his best. He has been writing non-professionally for years, and has been involved in all manner of geekdom forever. He’s always available to talk, so drop him a line!

I realized it’s been a while since we’ve done a recruitment post! While we have an utterly amazing team of artists, modelers, writers and scripters, we’re always on the lookout for more talent. So I want to highlight a few of the positions where we could use some help!

Artists: We’re always looking for more artists. It’s my hope to create posters for every single poster or image that Kkat described in Fallout: Equestria and a whole lot more, not only for GoE 1 for Fallout: New Vegas, but for GoE 2 for Fallout 4 as well! Art is the one thing where we simply can’t have enough!

Scripters: Scripts are the lifeblood of any game and GoE is no different. Every quest, every encounter and even every conversation is controlled by scripts. We’ve got some amazing talent in the scripting department, but we could always use some more help here. If you have any programming experience and have some familiarity with the GECK, we’d love to have you.

PR Director: Yeah, I know. I’ve been asking for this for about a year or so. I know it’s a pipe dream, but if you want some experience doing public relations (such as this post!) for Manehattan, please let us know!

New Position –Web Director: We’ve got some concepts for a major overhaul for the GoE site, but I simply don’t have the time to do it on my own. If you have experience with CSS, HTML and other elements of website design, please contact us for further details.

Don’t worry, I won’t talk your ear off here. I already did that in the other posts. I just wanted to make sure you all had a single place to find all of our One Year Anniversary material!

First of all, let’s get things fired up with the new Gardens of Equestria Main Theme. I am SO VERY THRILLED with this. This is partially inspired by the introduction themes to Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, while spanning the entire music range of GoE itself. Corvus completely outdid himself. I totally freaked out when I heard the thunder bit in there and was going SQUEE SQUEE SQUEE for like ten minutes. But he also did something utterly amazing. At the very end, you might notice a familiar little tune. That is indeed the Fallout theme! While we’ll likely be tweaking it a bit here and there, this is what you’ll be hearing when you fire up GoE: This Coming Storm for the first time…or any time you fire up FO:NV with GoE loaded!

Next up, we have our debut of our amazing new Cinematics Lead, Scarlet Moon. With a ton of After Effects experience (and a ton of other experience that I can’t even begin to list), I am very happy to have someone with her talent on the team. It means I don’t have to do all the cinematics anymore! Yay! Someone who knows what they’re doing!

Since “This Coming Storm” (the song) is a very special song for the Fallout: Equestria universe, we wanted to give it a true and proper music video. (And I confess that I’ve come to hate my original cloud-based designs). So not only was this her “test project,” but it turned out excellent. So go enjoy the new epic sounds of “This Coming Storm.”

Finally, we have one more music trailer that we released early this morning. The Primm Basement sketch!

That wraps up our YouTube material for this week. But wait! There’s more!

If you happened to miss last week, we released the Topaz Lake Score video and more importantly, Smuggler’s Run 2.0! That’s right, new artwork, new file structure (it’s a big deal, really) and a radio station with the Smuggler’s Run Theme!

I’ve also written up a One Year Anniversary Retrospective about the Manehattan Project Team, what started this whole thing and some of the wisdom I’ve gathered along the way.

Not only that, but we’ve announced the launch of The Manehattan Network, a new home for all things MLP Modding. Please remember that this is in the very early stages of development and may or may not pan out. It’ll depend entirely on you!

We’ve even got more material on the way in celebration, but it’s not quite ready yet. Don’t worry, soon ™!

We’ve also got three new members of the team!

Scarlet Moon – Cinematics Lead:

How to even start? Scarlet Moon is an riddle wrapped in an enigma stuffed in a chimicherrychanga. Professionally, she is a special effects and motion designer, but mostly a huge geek and a super nerd. She has been a MLP and video games fanatic since a young child. After losing touch with MLP for several years, through the magic of friendship, she rekindled her love of everypony and met Novel Idea, who encouraged her to use her powers of movie magic for the good of Fallout: Equestria.

In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading, drawing, painting, watching movies, making movies, playing games, and chilling with her cats. Her ideal time is building something with her hands, whether it’s a cake or a replica of Hobbiton.

Mercer – Script Engineer

I’ve been modding Fallout: New Vegas for 2 years now, and have published two mods on Nexus. I applied for Script Engineer position after stumbling upon one of Novel Idea’s blogs. Finland FTW.

Sunshine – QA Technician

Hi there! I’m Sunshine. I enjoy playing games, though I don’t get new games to play very often. I also write stories about ponies, participate in a pony-themed roleplaying group, and occasionally make pictures of ponies in Source Filmmaker. Funnily enough, I first discovered the Fallout series from Fallout: Equestria. And when I did, it was love at first sight. And now I’m a QA tester for GoE, putting my love of Fallout and Fo:E to a more practical use. I’m looking forward to doing my part for the Manehatten Project.

That’s it for this week folks. I’m totally exhausted. This took a heck of a lot out of me.

(Okay, I just realized that by the numbering scheme I had, this is actually #29, however, there were a few I didn’t label at the beginning, so this is #30 in my head. So it’s now reality)

Can you believe I’ve written thirty of these things? (Yes, I’ve written every one). And to think, all this started from an injury I sustained one year and two weeks ago. It’s amazing how life’s little twists end up sending you in a totally different direction. I never thought I’d become part of the FO:E Community. Hell, to be honest, I always liked the Elder Scrolls over Fallout (Fantasy is a bit more my typical fare).

But now I get a little thrill when I’m scanning through the Reddits and see someone else mention the Manehattan Project and GoE. Heck, the FO:E Reddit Mods decided to even give us our own special “flair” (which I love and am extremely grateful for).

So before we get to the good stuff, I want to thank everyone on the FO:E Reddit and the FiMFiction FO:E Forums for their support. A very special thank you to Kkat for some desperately needed encouragement during the launch of Smuggler’s Run in summer during “The Weekend of The Troll.”

But more than anything, I want to thank the Manehattan Project team, both past and present. Especially the past ones. It’s bizarre. I can actually see the finish line from where I’m standing. It’s still a ways off…but it’s there. And that’s due to the incredible talent who have decided (for some crazy reason) to throw their hat into this insane project that started from a concussion.

…you know, that explains a lot.

Anyhoo! Let’s get to the good stuff, shall we?

First, I’m happy to announce that we have new artwork for you!

That’s right, Blue Nova has been hard at work with a brand new replacement for the classic “Courage Today, Victory Tomorrow” poster. And I have to say it looks freaking awesome. Derived directly from Kkat’s original description in Fallout: Equestria, I’m present “You Too Can Be a Steel Ranger!”

Now, I know we’ve dropped the ball on this one. I stopped posting the YouTube versions because I found a fair amount of flubs, repeated lines and errors in our version. With all that’s going on, the audiobook went by the wayside. But I wasn’t satisfied with the quality. You see, I’ve been listening to Audible audiobooks for years and years and years now, so I have pretty high standards when it comes to audiobooks. I wanted to give that same sort of experience. So I’ve listened to the book multiple times, taken notes and found every error (I hope). So next week, the fourth and final edition of “Fallout: Equestria (The Manehattan Edition)” will be released!

This one will have many fixes (including removing that obnoxious “Footnote: Level Up” comment in the middle of Chapter 37). Every repeated line that I could find will be removed. We’re also including Corvus’s “This Coming Storm” song at the end of the Epilogue, just as Kkat originally intended as DJ-PON3’s last song before the Afterword. I’ve also redone the opening and ending (even going to the point of including my version of “Audible hopes you’ve enjoyed this broadcast” at the very end for those of you who have listened to Audible titles).

The current plan is for the entire MP3 and M4B (Audiobook) formats to be released concurrently. I will be taking down all of the previous YouTube videos and replacing them with the updated versions. It will likely take me a bit to get all of those set up (That takes a TON of processing time, because they are actually movies).

But now, there should be no more delays and no further updates. So if you haven’t had a chance to listen, next week is the time to start.

Finally, we’ve reached a major milestone here at the Manehattan Project.

As you may or may not know, I am our story scriptwriter. The only one, actually. Every line of dialogue and every action has been written by yours truly. Just yesterday, I finalized the last conversation in the Epilogue for Gardens of Equestria: This Coming Storm. While the general draft of this was done quite a while ago, there were some holes that needed to be filled.

So last weekend, I went through 80,000 words of dialogue. (Yes, you read that right). That’s longer than the first Harry Potter novel. That’s how much dialogue we will be recording just for GoE 1 alone. I cannot say how happy this makes me to say that I’m done with the story. Don’t worry, you’re going to love it. You have my money-back guarantee! (Which is convenient since all of this is completely free)

That’s it for this week folks. Look forward to the fourth and final edition of Fallout: Equestria (The Manehattan Edition) coming next week!

Novel Idea here with some very exciting news. Last week, we had a couple awesome applicants for artists looking to join The Manehattan Project in the creation of Gardens of Equestria. Well, one of them decided to throw himself into a test project and ended up with lightning-fast results five days earlier than requested! It took me all of about ten seconds to make the call to bring him on board, and that’s eight seconds longer than I needed.

So I am utterly delighted to introduce the newest member of the The Manehattan Project: Blue Nova! In fact, you may actually know his work already! I’ll let him introduce himself in his own words:

Nova, also known as on sites such as DeviantArt by the handle “Droakir“, is a professional freelance illustrator and independent comic artist.

An avid fan of both the MLP and Fallout franchises, it was only natural that eventually he would discover the perfect blend of the two known as Fallout: Equestria. Now he is joining the team and lending his talents to make the rich history of the world come to life in the form of faded billboards, worn out old posters and musty book covers.

Nova spends his free time reading, drawing, writing music, tinkering with electronics, and building artificial superintelligences.

Now, they say that a picture says a thousand words. Well this one probably rivals Fallout: Equestria’s word count. So today, I’m am ever so happy to reveal our new Ministry of Peace Recruitment Poster for Gardens of Equestria: This Coming Storm and Racing Apotheosis. Based directly on Kkat’s original description from the novel, I like to think this is the most FO:E-accurate poster revealed to date (though I may be a bit biased).

All of the work was done in about two days by Blue Nova, including a new custom version of the MoP logo based on Brisineo original logo.

Ministry of Peace Recruitment Poster – Distressed Version

Ministry of Peace Recruitment Poster – Clean Version

We actually have another potential artist in the pipeline too and I’m really looking forward to showing off his work next week!

We still have plenty of openings if you want to join the team. The more folks we get, the more we can do! (Well for a lot of things. There’s a few positions that would end up with “too many cooks in the kitchen.) If you’re interested, head on over to our Recruitment Center!

That’s it for this week folks! Things are booking along here at The Manehattan Project and we can’t wait to show you what we have in store.

We here at the Manehattan Project hope that the holidays treated you well. As for us, ironically half of us were sick during most of them and the other half spent a bit more time in Fallout 4 when we should have been working in GoE. Such is the way of gamers. But don’t worry, we’re almost completely back on track. We’ve made some internal changes to the way we’re handling the workload that should bring things to fruition much sooner.

At the moment, I’m happy to say that we even have a general goal for launch. While we’re not ready to share that just yet, know that this is coming. Soon, the Manehattan Project will invite you to head back to New Pegasus and save two worlds.

It’s in that vein that I’m here today. We have a couple important openings I’m sure you will be interested in.

Artist: The MLP and Fallout: Equestria community is filled with gifted and talented artists. Thankfully, many folks have given us permission to use their material, giving us the opportunity to create some truly awesome customized items for GoE 1. But there’s still a lot of work to do. We’re looking for someone with experience in GIMP, Photoshop or a similar program. It doesn’t need to be extensive. There are two sides of our artistic endeavors:

Retextures: We’re looking for folks who are adept at changing existing in-game elements to fit the FO:E asthetic. For example, you would change the primary image file for the signs says “Overseer” to “Overmare.” There are a lot of little changes that need to be made and we need someone to make this happen. We’re also looking for people to create higher-resolution versions of the existing material (such as foodstuffs and drinks).

Original Artwork: We’re also looking for individuals to create original artwork for the various skill books, magazines, Ministry posters and other Fallout: Equestria-style material. We need them to be high-resolution (at least at Fallout 4’s level) so we can reuse them for GoE 2. There’s a lot of freedom in this role, but we do have a few critical projects. You’ll be working hand-in-hand with our Lead Artist, Littlepip/FancyCat. In addition, if you already have some art like this (or know of people with art like this), please let us know in the comments!

PMV/Visualizer/YouTube Effects Artist (After Effects): This is a completely new position we’re just announcing today! We’re looking for someone with some minor experience in After Effects. We have several big trailer projects (including a totally epic Launch Trailer for GoE 1) along with our music announcements. Heck, if you want to even add some cool effects to the audiobook videos, that would be great! All you need to have is After Effects and a willingness to make epic things.

Thanks to Reddit, we have our new Calamity tentatively cast already. Polyphonic is over the moon about this potential candidate. In addition, massive work has been done on the Rock Farm Sector 3.

Let me just say that the Rock Farm is by far the most complex and ambitious level I’ve ever designed. It’s utterly MASSIVE. (It’s six stories tall with numerous labs and facilities on each level!). There’s an enormous amount of custom material. I’ve actually created unique Maneframes for the Ministry of Arcane Science, the Ministry of Technology and joint MAS/MWT Maneframes for this, complete with custom glow colors and actual ministry logos. That’s all with a completely recolored purple glow version of the glowing blue utility set from “Old World Blues.”

It’s epic. Seriously.

That’s all we have for this week. But now that the holidays are over, the kid gloves are coming off. We’re making this happen. We’re going to give you an awesome reason to head back to New Pegasus…and make you wonder just what we have in store for you in GoE 2 in Buckston.

Novel Idea here (you know, like every other time). I won’t keep you long today. I just wanted to let you know that we won’t be doing updates for the next two weeks. You know, Christmas/Holiday/Hearth’s Warming, etc.

However, it doesn’t mean that we won’t be busy! I will be doing a lot of backend work to set up for some efficiency and reporting improvements on our internal systems.

As I haven’t received a response from the admins of the Nexus (and I strongly suspect I know the answer), I’m also going to be preparing our internal forums for the potential launch of “The Manehattan Network,” a central hub for all MLP and Fo:E mods for Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim and Fallout 4. (And maybe other games too!). I have no intention of hosting any mod directly on this site, but I intend this to become a database where everyone can find and discuss our favorite mods. Hopefully, some great collaborations can come from this. However, if this is going to work, I’ll need your help. You’ll need to spread the word and let everyone know about it so they can join up.

After all, we’re stronger together!

I also intend to get some bug fixes into Smuggler’s Run in the next two weeks, so you’ll have a fun new version to play with in 2016. And don’t worry, we plan on doing preview mod for Fallout 4, though details on that are completely under wraps (deep inside my head…it’s a scary place, so don’t try and get them out).

Something a little different today. Even though Fallout 4’s GECK has not been released, that hasn’t stopped people from putting Pony into Bethesda’s latest foray into the Wasteland (seriously, no one could stop that anyway).

I wanted to highlight a few of the new mods out there on NexusMods and let everyone know that the Nexus now actually has an official “Related-to-MLP” tag!

Before I get to the mods though, something occurred to me: there really isn’t a place for MLP-themed modders out there. A few websites have tried to do it, but it can be hard to keep them up to date. So as of today, I’ve contacted one of the lead admins of the Nexus Mods and what he thought about creating subforum specifically for MLP modders. This feels like a bit of a double-edged sword though and the last thing I want to do is to create a massive target for trolls.

It’s in that vein that we are currently considering the creation of something that tentatively named “The Manehattan Network.” It would be hosted on our forums here on GoE.com. It would allow everyone to post about their own MLP-themed mods for any game and be a one-stop shop for all things MLP and gaming. (It would not be exclusive to FO:E-related mods)

Please note that this is still in the very early stages of inception. And there’s the simple fact that I already have an enormous amount of work to do (being the sole level designer on GoE for a worldspace and something like 40 levels). Not sure if this will happen anytime soon (if at all), but I just wanted to throw it out there that it’s something we’re playing with.

Let’s talk about a few Fallout 4 Pony Mods to tide you over until GoE 2 launches (yes, I know, we’re still on GoE 1, but I don’t want to leave you without some pony since a Wasteland without Pony is just depressing). This is just a random smattering of them. Feel free to check out the new “Related-t0-MLP” tag for a full list!

Fallout Ponified – A small texture replacement pack (just like the ones that ended up sparking the idea for GoE) for Fallout 4, this replaces almost all the paintings in Fallout 4, along with giving all the Nuka-Cola vending machines that familiar Sparkle-Cola feel!

Pixel’s MLP Texture Pack – Another texture pack that just goes totally off the wall, turning just about everything into something related to those pastel ponies. This isn’t even remotely FO:E related, it’s all pure MLP hilarity. (Seriously, the Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy teddy bears are awesome…even if they freak me out a bit).

Mare in the Moon – Okay granted, Luna was released from the moon in the series premiere and we haven’t actually seen this version of the moon since the latter half of that premiere (save for the Season 5 finale! 😉 ), it’s still very much a Pony thing. So maybe Luna wasn’t ever released in your timeline. If that’s the case, this one’s for you.

We’re still holding off on the YouTube updates of Fallout: Equestria (The Manehattan Edition) until the final edition is ready and Discord stole the damn drive again. I swear I’m going to turn that guy into stone when we catch him. That’s after he’s done putting bottlecaps in all those random desks, file cabinets and dressers. After all, how else am I going to afford all my goodies?

That’s it for this week folks. Have a great day and stay safe out there!

-Novel Idea

PS: We’re still recruiting! We’ve added Writers to our recruitment list, so if you’re interested in helping us fill the backstory of GoE with terminal & journal entries, feel free to apply!

This is my seventh consecutive win for National Novel Writing Month on a personal level and it has been well worth it. Why?

Because I now know the opening of Gardens of Equestria II: Racing Apotheosis for Fallout 4.

It came to me while I was writing a short little commentary on the story. I now have a much better idea of what we’re going to do in GoE II (yes, I’m “rebranding it.”). And it’s going to be awesome. Seriously awesome.

Here’s something else awesome: The Manehattan Project has decided to offer up three beta keys for the 50K Winners of National Pony Writing Month, hosted by Equestria Daily. I’ve also decided on behalf of the Manehattan Project to toss in a Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void Collector’s Edition Digital Key for anyone who passes the 50K mark. (I’ve decided to decline any potential rewards myself).

Gardens of Equestria: This Coming Storm Beta Details

Now before you start clamoring for beta keys of your own, please note that these beta keys will only become active when “This Coming Storm” is ready for its beta. That’s likely not going to be for at least a few weeks minimum. We may be doing limited distribution of a few more later, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The beta includes a full NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) similar to what Overmare does with their work. After all, we don’t want to spoil the surprise, do we?

Gardens of Equestria: This Coming Storm Development Update

As for development, this week will likely be slow for us for obvious reasons. That being said, I’m happy to say that both Trench and Wolf are back up and running after a nasty issue that was causing the GECK program to crash every time our central mod was loaded. (Took six hours to nail down that one. I had to copy my own Data folder to finally get that resolved). As for me, I’m thrilled that the full level decor is now complete for the Rock Farm Sector 2: Administration, an immense sprawling office complex where you’ll be hunting for your friends after separated by the Rock Farm’s erratic security systems.

I’ve also started lighting and decor on the biggest level I’ve ever designed: Sector 3, the heart of the Rock Farm’s R&D. It’s here where players will discover some of the most powerful weaponry ever conceived by the MAS and MWT along with unique armor and race to stop the brutal death of every living soul in Appleloosa Valley. It’ll be awesome.

Finally, on a personal note, to my utter shock, Gamestop has Fallout 4 PipBoys (Sorry folks, they sold out before this went live) in stock on Tuesday. I snagged one immediately, which means now I don’t have to worry about the French one coming (that ironically just arrived in San Francisco within a half hour of me making the new order). So I’ll finally get to play the game soon. Can’t say how thrilled I am.

After all, I need to play so I can come up with more cool ideas for GoE II!

Fallout: Equestria (The Manehattan Edition) Audiobook

We’re also going to be pausing our Fallout: Equestria (The Manehattan Edition) audiobook updates for a short time. We’re in the process of preparing the fourth and final version of the audiobook, with a completely re-recorded introduction and finale (with a very Audible-like style!) along with getting rid of the last series of flubs, repeated lines and glitches. Stay tuned for details!

That’s it for this week folks! For those applicable, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

-Novel Idea

(P.S. As someone who worked for ten years in retail, I’m personally boycotting all retail stores this weekend. If you must shop, please do not shop on Thursday. Don’t support those greedy companies who demand their employees come in on Thanksgiving while their Execs are at home with their families. And be extra kind to anyone this weekend at any store. Trust me. They need every iota of kindness they can get.)

We edit this post with the very freaking epic Fallout 4 Launch Trailer!

Good afternoon!

NaNoWriMo!

So the first question on your mind is probably “Did Novel actually start NaNoWriMo? Is he really that crazy?” Well, I’m 9,592 words in as of this morning. Which means I’m actually nearly 3,000 words ahead of the target.

So yes, I am just that crazy. I have to say that this is probably the most challenging story I’ve ever attempted. Having to figure out how much to inform our heroes about what happened in Equestria is difficult. I feel like I’m waking several tightropes at once. However, this is not my first foray into a pre-existing universe. I’m happy to say that I’ve won some serious awards for previous engagements in other people’s worlds.

It also helps that I am a devout fan of J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the beloved science fiction epic, Babylon 5. And as many know, Kkat is as well. So interestingly enough, the stories seem to make sense to me.

Cool news for those participating in Equestria Daily’s NaPoWriMo (National Pony Writing Month): We are offering up three “beta keys” to people who pass the 50,000 word mark! So if you want to see GoE: This Coming Storm early, get crackin’!

(BTW, the picture for the cover is a temp version. I plan on totally redoing it).

Anyway, enough of the story (though expect update throughout the month!). Let’s talk GoE: This Coming Storm!

Staff Updates

First of all, I’m happy to announce that our former Technical Director, Red Kat, has decided to return to the Manehattan Project as a technical consultant. Thankfully, some of the real life assaults have lessened somewhat, giving her a bit more time. In addition, Wolfie will continue as one of our primary scripters, having moved over from modeling to help us make this game possible.

In addition, I’m also very happy to announce that we have yet another new member. This one is a personal friend of mine who’s decided to go under the name of Trench Broom (Trench Broom, in case you were wondering, is one of the nicknames for the famous “Thompson Machine Gun” better known as the Tommy Gun.). He’ll be joining us on the scripting side to help make this game happen, working directly with Wolf and myself.

Here you can find out a bit more about Trench Broom:

Trench Broom is a master of desenrascanço, his abilities honed over years spent in the trenches, cleaning up other people’s messes.

After being fed up with the war, he retreated to a stable (which one, he refuses to say) and spent his time in silent contemplation until he heard the call of the Gardens of Equestria crew.

He has been able to do a surprising amount of things, considering he has no hands or fingers, and the only magic he knows is “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”.

In his spare time, he likes to:

– Build things out of spare parts he has laying around. Widgets, gadgets, any kind of –dgets, really.

– Play games where choices matter; half playing and half reminiscing, but always thinking, “What could I have done better” either way.

– Read self-help books due to stress from his choices always mattering.

I have yet to update the Staff page as things have been a bit busy, but I’ll be doing it soon. We’ve decided to merge the technical team in with the design team, making things a bit easier. At the moment, we have two teams: Design and Audio. Art, modeling, scripting and level design all fall under design, while sound effects, music and voicework fall under audio.

I’d also like to officially introduce Clanky4’s bio, who I mentioned a bit ago as being the epic modeler and animator behind the FO:NV Pony Mod recently released.

I have enjoyed the Fallout franchise since I was first introduced to Fallout 3. I can honestly say after meeting Trouble Man of The Pitt, my life was never really the same. At least until encountering Mr. House. He is truly the single greatest character in the entire Fallout franchise. I have modded a few other games such as Fallout 3, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Civilization 4 (clearly the best one). Generally converting and rigging meshes onto various skeletons. Even if they obviously weren’t meant to be there.

Remember folks, we’re always looking for new talent. If you’re interested in helping out making GoE a reality, be it in scripting, voice acting, level design, artwork or PR, drop us a line at our Recruitment Page.

New Audiobook Chapter

Only one chapter this week folks. I’ve had a lot of trouble lately with iMovie not uploading correctly to YouTube (and making sure to take about an hour before actually erroring out). This week, Xenith enters the fray. I also apologize for the different pronunciations that I use instead of Crazed Rambling’s. You can find the latest chapter here.

Fallout 4 and GoE 2 Story

As many of you know this is going to be an eventful week. Many of us here at the Manehattan Project are huge Blizzard fans and several of us will be going to BlizzCon. (I for one cannot wait to see the full trailer for Warcraft. This movie is going to be freaking amazing). And you all know what happens next Tuesday: Fallout 4 is released!

Sadly, I had to get my PipBoy edition from France, so I’ll have to wait two weeks to play the dang thing. So I’ll be hiding in a “write-only” bubble to avoid spoilers. 😉

Speaking of spoilers, I recently discovered something about Fallout 4. It’s the only bit of information I actively sought out. However, I’ve decided to put it at the end of this post so (because at the moment, I can’t get the spoiler scripts to work right to hide it properly and the color trick isn’t working either). You’ll also get a little preview of some of the story planning for the end of GoE 1 and the beginning of GoE 2, plus Dances of Light and Shadow!

Tiny Fallout 4 Spoiler Alert: all it concerns is when the events of Fallout 4 occur in relation to New Vegas and Fallout 3. For those who are avoiding all spoilers, you should skip the next section.